Berkeley (surname)

Berkeley is a surname. It is also used, uncommonly, as a given name. The name is a habitation name from Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England, itself derived from Old Englishbeorce léah meaning birch lea. People with the name include:

History

Early history

The site of today's City of Berkeley was the territory of the Chochenyo/Huchiun band of the Ohlone people when the first Europeans arrived. Evidence of their existence in the area include pits in rock formations, which they used to grind acorns, and a shellmound, now mostly leveled and covered up, along the shoreline of San Francisco Bay at the mouth of Strawberry Creek. Other artifacts were discovered in the 1950s in the downtown area during remodeling of a commercial building, near the upper course of the creek.